Results from the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test (OSSLT) indicate that English as a Second Language (ESL) and English Literacy Development (ELD) students have comparatively low success and high deferral rates. This study examined the 2002 and 2003 OSSLT test performances of ESL/ELD and non-ESL/ELD students in order to identify and…

This document is designed to be a companion to the "Canadian Language Benchmarks 2000: Theoretical Framework." It builds on the original document with an extensive listing of additional sample task ideas for reading, listening, speaking, and writing benchmarks. The document provides additional examples of tasks for stage I reading…

This handbook provides suggestions for gathering and interpreting information about students' reading behavior; planning instruction that develops students' reading skills; and planning instruction that reinforces and extends students' reading skills in areas where they are successful. After a brief introductory section, the handbook presents a…

As part of a larger study of developmental deficits in the skills of automaticity of name retrieval, phonological awareness, and memory span and their role in reading disabilities, a study tested 13 average and 14 poor fourth-grade readers for digit and letter naming speed, phonological awareness, and digit span. Among the reading skills assessed…

This annotated bibliography of Canadian reading texts for adult English-as-a-second-language learners presents both commercial offerings and local school-level productions ranging in proficiency level from beginner to advanced. (Author/CB)

Describes a large-scale Canadian assessment program which attempted to embed an improvement orientation into assessment by emphasizing how large-scale assessment contributes to learning. The paper investigates the impact of the assessment on how schools addressed accountability and improvement after the program had been in place for 2 years,…

While Canadians tend to consider the American system to be overly litigious, they are catching up fast. Their own domestic set of plaintiffs is suing the agents of obesity and pollution, but actions pertaining to education seem to be spiking as well. A few of these cases are trivial. This morning's local newspaper reports that a judge has ruled…

Examines teaching rime analogy or letter recoding reading strategies to prereaders. Results reveal that experience with rime analogy increased letter recoding ability, but teaching in letter recoding did not enhance rime analogy. Children learned to read with a rime analogy or letter recoding reading strategy, and many developed new reading…

Specific criteria for the rating of each questionnaire item are stated in detail. The teacher is asked, after reading the questions carefully, to assign each grade 3 and up student a rating for every question. This rating should be based on a personal knowledge of the student. The booklet is divided into three sections with section 1 focusing on…

This annotated bibliography on reading education consists of 131 abstracts of Canadian masters' theses in the areas of reading instruction, reading research, and reading achievement. The masters' theses included in this document, completed at 14 Canadian Universities during a fifty year period from 1922 to 1972, are arranged in alphabetical order…

A split class of 10 Year 1 pupils and 20 Year 2 pupils used the Listen Look Learn multi-media program. A Year 1 and a Year 2 class using the regular basal reading program served as control groups. The effectiveness of the Listen Look Learn program was examined by comparing the reading tests scores of the experimental and control groups. To allow…

Five points are: (1) don't assume students know how to use their textbooks; (2) don't ignore the problem or take only short term measures for improvement; (3) don't give undirected assignments; (4) don't force students to pronounce every word correctly; (5) don't send students to the dictionary for words they don't know. (Author/JK)

The cognitive patterns of 58 "retarded" and 38 below-average readers were compared with controls, according to Luria's simultaneous and successive modes of information processing. Factor Analysis showed different cognitive patterns for disabled and nondisabled readers. Reading skills, rather than cognitive ability, were shown to be…

Reports the findings of a matched-group study showing that the academic achievement of native Canadian elementary school children was not significantly different from that of their nonnative peers. (FL)

The Woodcock Reading Mastery Test-Revised (WRMT-R) is advertised as usable with English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) students (with provisions to ensure students' understanding of instructions). This articles describes new features of the WRMT-R and examines criticisms of it since its debut in 1973. (SM)